You're in charge of national security for the day.

As someone who has worked in intelligence roles within the armed forces, and who has been in the thick of more terrorist attacks than i would like to remember, one thing i struggle with on ATS is the threads about the excess of security, monitoring,...even fear mongering by our authorities.

When i struggle with them, i mean that i am torn.

I cannot stand some of the Orwellian measures that have been implemented in our countries. CCTV, internet monitoring, communications monitoring...it bugs me...pardon the pun.

However i have seen first hand how measures such as these have helped saved many many lives. The three letter agencies that we talk about here so fondly, conspiracies aside, do have a job to do.

We WOULD moan if they didn't do anything about security.

So where do we draw the line? What is the right amount of security?

Lets say you are in charge for just one day, you have been put in charge of national security and have been given free reign to do what you want, as long as it is in the interest of your nations security. This includes changing/aboloshing/implimenting new bills.

I look forward to reading your suggestions.

CX.

Up front, I am practically an isolationist.
The first thing I would do is start shutting down all but the most essential military bases in foreign countries. (ARE any of these essential other than Ramstein or those supporting the troops in Afghanistan/ those remaining in Iraq?) These personnel, imo, should be defending the United States- our borders & our ports, not going off on wild goose chases that may or may not even be based in reality. All of our borders need to be really, really tight. They should have been before. That is 1000 times true, now. We have no business employing private "contractors" for something as critical as our security.
We have stirred up a lot of furious anger in not only the ME (by the harm done to civilians and infrastructure/ creating or adding to the instability), but parts of Asia & Africa as well. We can expect the backlash & we should be heavily prepared for it. We need to clean up what we've destroyed & get out asap. See also "when you're digging yourself in a hole, stop digging". They bankrupted the Soviet Union and it's about to bankrupt us in addition to any terrorism problems we may have in the future as a result. Who "wins" then? Or have they, already?

Personally, I would rather see money spent on knowing exactly who/ what was getting on an airplane or a ship instead of searching every person. It's really inefficient. It is certainly possible to gather that information on people quickly or verify- just ask a credit card company. US airports have the worst reputation in the world among people who fly a lot.
Wiretapping is another inefficient means of trying to apprehend terrorists. There is simply too much corruption in our government for it to be effective. (If you are unaware of Sibel Edmunds and Philip Ghiraldi, look them up)

I would put an immediate end to rendition & torture. Holding suspicious persons until they can be proven a valid threat or not is one thing. What we're doing is not that. At the very least, we should have international observers present to verify that we are not violating the Geneva Conventions. Having said that, any group or persons who attack the US or any US office in a foreign country needs to be taken out, permanently- no prison terms. If it isn't clear cut, assassinations. If it is, executions. Not so much private corporations. They should do so at their own risk, be responsible for what happens to their employees & subject to the laws of the country they're in as well as US law. Destroying the infrastructure and civilian population of another country is not in our best interests. It is illegitimate to have attacked Afghanistan & Iraq when virtually all of the alleged hijackers on September 11th were Saudi nationals.

We need to stop being such glaring hypocrites. By that, I mean that we shouldn't be supplying aid or military hardware to countries that constantly threaten or assault their neighbors- or attack ethnic groups within their own countries. I would go so far as to cut off all diplomatic relations and maybe go so far as economic sanctions. We should have zero tolerance for any act of aggression and have far greater discretion in what is characterized as "self defense".
Any country that is caught spying within the US needs to have diplomatic ties severed permanently. If these things are at stake, maybe other countries will take more responsibility and curtail those activities.

Basically, we need to actually protect our country and stay out of other countries' business. Not doing so, plus the corruption that enabled attacks on the US/ US property, is what got us into this mess in the first place.

Where to start?

Ok, a few immediate measures to kick things off.

1. Immediate classification of "lobbyist" groups representing the interests of a foreign nation as being agents of a foreign nation. Immediate change in law preventing access by those agents to any and all political representatives and the outlawing of "campaign donations" or other monies transferred or other such inducements. Follow this up later with a ban on ALL lobbyists using payments, inducements or other means as a way to gain access to politicians or sway government decisions in their favour.

2. Immediate removal of any and all government officials having dual-nationality status. We need only political representatives looking after the interests of the people, first second and third, not foreign nations.

3. Immediate withdrawal of all armed forces from foreign lands, including current areas of conflict. After all, if we were not meddling in others affairs and killing others in foreign lands, we would not be a target ourselves.

That would do for starters and would also go a long way to spending the money at home, where it's needed, rather than abroad on wars for corporate gain and to prop up the massive arms industry.

I defer to your opinion if you have personal experience, but I don't believe most of the restrictions do anything to help.

Airlines are an easy example. Not one of the restrictions in place would stop me, or any educated person from bringing a plane down. They are just cumbersome, invasive things to give the appearance of action, but they only serve to deter pranksters and extreme amateurs. A trained chemist, or terrorist, or anyone that does not fear losing their own life, could still easily get the job done.

How about the Times Square smoke bomber? Supposedly connected to international terror groups, but somehow didn't know that he actually had to mix the explosives together to make them go boom? He thought he could just pile them all lin the car and ignite some gasoline cans? Yet, our invasive spy network has connected him to sophisticated terrorist networks? All that illegal wire tapping for bad information or Red Herrings?

What about the porous southern border and completely wide open northern border? How does any other precaution make any sense, when a foreign entity can just ship their stuff to the wide open spaces of Canada, rent a truck and drive into the US completely unchecked? Why waste time with wiretaps and searches of our own citizens when we haven't even protected the border yet?

What about the supposed terrorist the FBI "tailed" from NY to Denver with press corps in tow? Publicly declaring that they had a warrant and intended to search his last couple of locations? Why even have those "sealed" Federal warrants where they bust in paramilitary style on families in the middle of the night, if they are going to turn around and warn a real suspect days in advance of executing a real warrant?

Nope, in my opinion, there is not a single deterrent or intelligence feature in place that makes sense to give up personal rights for, when they haven't even handled the basics yet. For a football analogy, a team could have the best secret trick play ever, they could practice it over and over, they could recruit the best athletes with the highest tech uniforms and shoes, and they could go into a game, and if they don't complete the basic task of hiking the ball and not getting penalized, then all that trickery and technology is worthless. They have to be experts at the basics first. The US is a novice at the basic protection of its citizens, we are lightyears behind Spain, and Japan, and Israel, so why are we wasting time with high-tech, rights violating wizardry and cumbersome new laws?

Thanks for the replies, and to be honest, i couldn't have said much more or said it better myself. Some very well laid out posts with lots of excellent points.

My opinion wouldn't count for much here really, i was more curious as to how other members would go about things, i know its a common cause for debate here on the forum.

CX.

I would prosecute the CIA, CFR, fed reserve, big oil/pharma, GOP & DNC under RICO.. freezing all their assets, serving search warrants to recover evidence while surrounding & containing their respective HQ's as "crime scenes". All party members, staff and bankers suspected of crimes.. arrested, personal effects searched & charged.. regardless of lofty titles like "congressmen". Replacements would be elected, but could not represent either party under investigation.


bush, obama and cousion dick and a half dozen of their cronies: same as above.. plus charged with international war crimes and summarily sent to the hague for a fair trial. To help mitigate their whining, to garner sympathy among their blindly loyal empty vessel left/right party clones, I'd release 1000s of so called 'secret' documents on the internet.. anything embarrassing, or implicating and/or exposing their nefarious 2-party organized criminal deeds.

I turn the police state loose on the establishment, discredit them with their own documents and rally the people to support "operation toilet flush".. to include crumbling the Fed govt into bits returning decision power to a local level.

Eventually the GOP & DNC would be determined to be "illegal war mongering criminal empires" and join the nazi party in infamy.

Future politicians could belong to no party, serve once in a lifetime on strict limited terms, and they'd be kept in check by giving the people power to negate official decisions via referendum. Future congresses would be composed of 1/3rd non affiliated citizens drafted into serving 1 term from the jury pool.

Along with an immediate cease fire applying to all US forces in the mid east, ordering the removal of every single US govt asset to begin within 12 hours...gear that presents serious delays would be left behind or destroyed. Troops marched/drove in, they can march/drive out. US bases on foreign soil would be abandon and left as gifts.

Citizen grand juries composed of random political independents would form in each state to make a list of any federal/state laws/rules they think need to be erased.. to be approved by the people using paper ballots by referendum... the police state would be demolished one boot at a time by the people..

Media ownership diluted, rules drastically changed to forever prevent concentrated control.

Then I'd step down, get on my boat, and go chill on a tropical island... assuming I was alive which would be doubtful.

Oh wait..that's right, 'the man' would squish me like a bug.. nah, never mind all that "power to the people" "save America" junk..lol...my instinct is to survive.. I'd take a $10 billion Euro bribe to leave TPTB "as is".. THEN get on my boat and go chill on my own island to watch the nation circle the drain in HD.